“Jesus
Christ was a feminist.”
After all, Jesus
challenged the conventional patriarchy of his culture. He depended
upon the ministry of women and he wasn’t ashamed of receiving their
ministry in public. In a culture where women were often scorned,
Jesus consistently redefined the ways humans relate to one another by
receiving cultural outcasts into his own community.
I do not understand how a
church – a religion in the 21st century – would deny posts of
highest leadership to women. Many churches, including some of the
largest denominations in the United States – the Roman Catholic
Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and the
Southern Baptist Convention – do not allow women to be ordained or
hold top church leadership positions. The snail's pace of needed
change for women is evident in religious organizations, institutions
that cling to illogical orthodox beliefs that promote misogyny.
These Christian
denominations believe that, though men and women are equal, they are
not identical and, since scripture outlays a division between roles
of men and women in the church, it would be inappropriate to assign
women the role or responsibilities of a pastor.
What scriptures support
this claim? One such biblical reference occurs in the first book of
the Old Testament. In Genesis 3:16, God says, “Unto the woman I
will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee.” Eve is represented as framed from a
rib taken out of Adam’s body to be his “helpmate,” not his
equal.
That belief is further
bolstered by those who cite the original sin to blame Eve for being
tricked by the serpent into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge
of life and death. Because Eve was deceived, it was understood that
women are gullible. Ergo, the Fall resulted in human depravity and
serves to prove the moral weakness of women … evidently to this
day. (But, how about Adam and his bite of the apple?)
The Old Testament abounds
with stories of women sold and traded like cattle, of marriageable
girls held hostage in return for years of hard labor by their
suitors. The subservient role of helper seems to be extended to mean
women are men's property.
How about the New
Testament? 1 Corinthians 11:8-10 further relegates women to be made
subject to men – mates serving to help and comfort their male
counterparts. Their leadership role in the church is forbidden, as
the belief contends women should do nothing in Christian assemblies.
Paul, himself, contends the head of every man is Christ, the head of
every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God:
Paul
wrote to Timothy: "A woman should learn in quietness and full
submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority
over a man; she must be silent" (1 Timothy 2:11-12). While the
apostle was encouraging the teaching of women (even though
traditionally they weren't given that opportunity), he restricted
them from authoritatively sharing their learning with men. Some
people say this prohibition means women must never, ever teach men in
the church.
Because women in Ephesus
at this time were uneducated and secluded, Paul was warning that they
could be misled by the false teachers trying to lure new Christians
away from the church Paul wanted to establish. This attitude echoes
the belief of feminine moral weakness established in the Fall.
As
may be seen throughout the Old Testament and in the Greco-Roman
culture of New Testament times, patriarchal societies placed men in
positions of authority in marriage, society and government. The New
Testament only records males being named among the 12 original
apostles of Jesus Christ. Yet, women were the first to discover the
Resurrection.
With solid biblical
reference, groups like the Southern Baptists have claimed that their
doctrinal positions were either taught in the Bible or were, at the
least, not contrary to the explicit teachings of Scripture.
“We have seen that
the explicit texts of Scripture forbid women to serve as pastors. The
biblical model for family roles supports that stance as well. It is
not a matter of inferiority or worth, for all persons are of equal
worth in their persons, reflecting the essential equality of the
Godhead. It is a matter of function. There is no compelling reason to
encourage women as pastors, and there are many reasons not to do so.”
(Journal
of the Southern Baptist Convention)
On all the standard
measures of religious commitment examined, Christian women are more
religious than Christian men The Pew Research Center reported these
statistics about religion in the U.S. in 2014 …
* American women are more
likely than men to say religion is “very important” in their
lives (60% vs. 47%)
* American women also are
more likely than American men to say they pray daily (64% vs. 47%)
and attend religious services at least once a week (40% vs. 32%).
* According to media accounts, women so outnumber men in
the pews of many U.S. churches that some clergy have changed decor,
music and worship styles to try to bring more men into their
congregations.
While
many major religious denominations in the United States now allow
women to pastor churches and synagogues, only 11% of American
congregations were led by women in 2012, according to press reports
of an upcoming National Congregations Study survey. And, in 2018,
only 1 of the 100 largest churches in the United States was led by a
woman, due in large part to institutionalized patriarchal models of
leadership.
Some women’s groups seek
a female priesthood. The Church has ruled this out, arguing Jesus
chose only men as his apostles. Pope Francis admitted significant
failings by clergy, he also said the Church “could not agree with
everything some feminist groups propose,” a clear reference to the
Church’s ban on a female priesthood. Still, the church head did not
acknowledge change allowing women leaders.
Francis said (2019) …
“A living Church can
look back on history and acknowledge a fair share of male
authoritarianism, domination, various forms of enslavement, abuse and
sexist violence. With this outlook, she (church) can support the call
to respect women’s rights, and offer convinced support for greater
reciprocity between males and females, while not agreeing with
everything some feminist groups propose.”
Linda Woodhead, Professor
of the Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University in England,
takes a different stand. She says, "Of the many threats that
Christianity has to face in modern times, gender equality is one of
the most serious.”
Woodhead finds what she
calls “a great paradox”:
“Women are the main
workforce and army that keeps all religions going. They are the ones
that put in the energy, transmit the faith, and are considered to be
more deeply committed, but the main dissatisfaction women have with
the church is with the leadership not taking them seriously and not
treating them as equal.”
(Linda
Woodhead, Harvard Political Review)
Woodhead believes that
traditional forms of religion are more likely to prove a hindrance to
women than a help. Woodhead states …
"Egalitarian
emphasis (equality in
authority and responsibilities between genders) is contradicted by a
symbolic framework that elevates the male over the female, and by
organizational arrangements that make masculine domination a reality
in church life. Theological statements on the position of women from
down the centuries testify not only to the assumption that it is men
who have the authority to define women, but to the precautions that
have been taken to ensure that women do not claim too much real
equality with men – in this life at least.”
Jesus – A Feminist?
Was Jesus Christ, the son
of God, a feminist? I agree with Christian feminists that women are
not a sub-class in society. That is the goodness of God’s design –
both men and women have value, purpose, and dignity. From biblical
evidence it should be clear that Jesus vigorously promoted the
dignity and equality of women in the midst of a very male-dominated
society: Yes, I believe Jesus was a feminist – a very radical one.
And God with every fiber of Her being approved of his son's loving
promotion of females.
After all, Exodus 34: 6-7a
says:
“And The Lord passed
in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the compassionate and
gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,
maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion
and sin.'”
To me, that description
fits a feminine Spirit perfectly. Besides, in Genesis, women and men
are created in the “Imago Dei,” the image of God, which suggests
that God transcends socially constructed notions of gender. Even a
name often used for God is suspect in absolute, masculine terms –
the first part of God’s name in Hebrew, “Yah,” is feminine, and
the last part, “weh,” is masculine.
“And
God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.” Exodus
3:14
In light of Exodus 3, the
feminist theologian Mary Daly asks, “Why must ‘God’ be a noun?
Why not a verb – the most active and dynamic of all.” And, surely
such an influential, loving and gracious creator could be more female
than male. I believe every truthful man can attest to this
likelihood.
Some things are certain
about God and his spiritual gender: (1) God is not bound by the
confines of human language such as gender pronouns (“he” or
“she”); (2) God is infinite, transcendent, and not human; and (3)
God, himself, created gender. The theological imbalances created by
man distort the view of women in the church and can cause them to be
treated as spiritual inferiors, rather than as equal image-bearers of
God. That seems like a very un-Christian thing to do. Yep, to me,
Jesus was, and still is, a feminist. I know He would speak out
against voices like this:
“For a
woman to teach and preach to adult men is to defy
God’s
Word and God’s design.”
– Owen
Strachan, professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., 2019
“There’s
just something about the order of creation that means that God
intends
for the preaching voice to be a male voice.”
– R.
Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, Ky., in a podcast, 2019
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